Inheriting class annotations

Question

Is there a way to make classes inherit annotations from a superclass ?

e.g.

@ApplicationException(rollback=true)
public abstract class AbstractBeanActionException extends Exception {
    /* method body is simply calls to super() */
}

public class OrderBeanException extends AbstractBeanActionException {
    /* does this class have to be annotated as well ? */
}

Answer 1

If you define your annotations classes yourself, then you can use @Inherited meta annotation:

Indicates that an annotation type is automatically inherited. If an Inherited meta-annotation is present on an annotation type declaration, and the user queries the annotation type on a class declaration, and the class declaration has no annotation for this type, then the class's superclass will automatically be queried for the annotation type.